We can only shake our collective heads at what’s happening to a straight-A honor student who is facing a possible 10-day in-school suspension all because he unknowingly used counterfeit money to purchase his lunch.
The school is even considering this punishment in spite of the student’s parents filing a police report regarding the counterfeit $20 bill.
Here’s the deal: Christian Philon, 12, and his parents told school officials they had no idea that a $20 bill that his father, a retired veteran, got back as change from a fast food restaurant was fake, according to Yahoo News.
The child’s mother, Gwen Philon, told WSB-TV, “If we knew it, he wouldn’t have had it, but we didn’t know.”
Here’s what the father, Earvin Philon, told the TV station:
I’ve never handled counterfeit money. I don’t know what it looks like.”
Christian Philon was attempting to pay for his meal at Austin Road Middle School in Stockbridge, Ga., when the lunch lady marked the bill with a counterfeit detecting ink.
“I was confused on how the money was counterfeit. And how my parents received it,” the 12-year-old told WSB.
Christian was still given the 10-day in-school suspension because the school’s bottom line is … based on their own words:
“You possessed it, so you’re going to have to pay for it,” Christian told WSB-TV.
